School of Stage and Screen presenting ‘This Is Our Youth’

From left, college dropouts Dennis (played by Silas Waugh) and Warren (played by Adam King) discuss their plight with Jessica (played by Kelly McCarty) in a scene from the production of “This Is Our Youth,” being presented Feb. 3-5 by Western Carolina University’s School of Stage and Screen. (Photo by Sadie Whitehead.)

The 2016-17 Mainstage theatre season of Western Carolina University’s School of Stage and Screen will continue in early February with “This Is Our Youth,” a snapshot of the moment between adolescence and adulthood for three wayward residents of New York City.

Performances are set for 7:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 3, and Saturday, Feb. 4, and at 3 p.m. on Feb. 4 and Sunday, Feb. 5, in the Black Box Theatre of WCU’s John W. Bardo Fine and Performing Arts Center.

The play tells the story of two college dropouts, Dennis and Warren, who live in an Upper West Side apartment in 1982. Dennis is living off his family’s wealth, and Warren has stolen $15,000 from his own father. Both are caught up in the “Me Generation” of the 1980s, but both simultaneously reject the elitist world of their parents, said Jayme McGhan, director of the School of Stage and Screen. “As the two young men figure out how to return the $15,000, a young woman, Jessica, begins to open Warren’s eyes to the complexities of human relationships and the nature of loyalty,” McGhan said.

The three actors for the WCU production are Adam King, a sophomore from Raleigh majoring in acting; Silas Waugh, a sophomore acting major from Catawba; and Kelly McCarty, a junior musical theatre major from Peachtree, Georgia.

The play will be directed by Dustin Whitehead, assistant professor in the School of Stage and Screen who is in his second year of teaching at WCU. An actor and filmmaker as well as teacher, Whitehead has performed in numerous independent films and the NBC shows “Chicago PD” and “Chicago Fire.”

Tickets are $11 for WCU faculty and staff, and seniors; $16 for adults; and $10 for students on the day of the show and $7 in advance.

Tickets are available online at bardoartscenter.wcu.edu or by calling the box office at 828-227-2479.